Good Enough
by Fan Fictional Authoress
Summary: He was sure he would die falling into that portal with Rassilon, but he instead falls through time and into a parallel universe. The drums are gone and he's effectively stuck there not knowing what to do with his newfound sanity. Conquering the universe doesn't have any appeal without his rival, but maybe exploring it with a duplicate will...a pretty duplicate. Fem!Doctor/Master
1. Saudade

**_All translations, explanations, advertisements, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter._**

**____****Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

* * *

_Dressing yourself up to kill_  
_You do this for peace, you do this for love_  
_But you know there has to be loss_

-Sacrifice by Silverstein

* * *

When the barrel of the gun first pointed at him, the Master could only feel a sense of mild amusement and a small portion of surprise. There wasn't any fear, because the Doctor wouldn't-couldn't!-shoot him. The Doctor didn't have it in him. He never would. So when the gun turned away from him, the Master only felt satisfaction, not relief. He expected it to, because it always did.

_The Doctor would never try to kill him._

This fact was as dependable as the drums, one of the few consistencies in the Master's life. The only consistency he really cared for and took for granted. Constantly. He never saw it coming; the Doctor turning the gun back on him with such a look of despair and desperation. Now, the Master knew, the Doctor could kill him. His brown eyes held fear-the Doctor was afraid, but the finger was still firmly on the trigger.

_And the gun didn't tremble._

The Master stared down the barrel of the gun, into those terrified brown eyes behind it, and did the nothing. In that long, silent moment that followed, the Master didn't speak, didn't plead or lie or curse or shout or-heaven forbid-_cry,_ but he didn't need to. His face said it all. He was frustrated, a bit angry, and...and hurt.

_The Doctor didn't care about him anymore and was going to kill him._

There was a stinging sensation in his chest, and it wasn't from a bullet. He felt sad, the idea hurt, this new fact hurt, everything hurt. The Master now knew what the Doctor must've felt like all those times when it was _him _who was holding that gun, that laser screwdriver, that key to the Doctor's demise. In that moment, that brief moment, the Master felt something akin to heartbreak.

A feeling he hadn't felt since the first time the Doctor abandoned him in favor of exploring the rest of the universe instead. Although, the Master probably would have described it as betrayal instead of heartbreak. At that moment, if he could, the Master probably would have managed to feel sympathy and genuine remorse for all the wrong he had done up until that time, but he didn't. Only a slight regret in his actions but nothing more; anymore and he wouldn't be himself, he wouldn't be the Master.

In that moment, the Master had deflated and waited for his life to end. The Doctor-the Master thought-had no love for him anymore, and he didn't blame the other time lord. The Master didn't love himself either, he hated both himself and the drums the most. In fact, the Master had hated pretty much everything and everyone, even Lucy, especially Lucy, after the ritual. But if it was any consolation prize to the Doctor after everything the Master put him though, the Master hated him the least; the closest to love that the Master would probably ever get in this state of mind.

"Get out of the way."

The Master's hearts stopped and even the drums paused for a fraction of second in their constant _ta-ta-ta-tap_ing. Relief flooded his senses but surprise quickly drowned it out along with a TARDIS-load of many other unidentifiable emotions. The Doctor didn't kill him? The Doctor still cared? The Doctor still felt love for him? Even now?

The Master felt elated and a smile unconsciously flitted across his face. A brief, beautiful, genuine smile that belonged to another man, another person that had been all but snuffed out by the oppression of the drums over the centuries.

The Doctor fired his gun making the white-point star shatter to pieces in a bright flash. The drums shrieked in his mind, outraged, making the Master stumble in pain. They reached a crescendo before flickering on and off, fading and returning...as if they were losing the signal. In one of the moments when the drums were fading, the Master heard Rassilon's furious scream, "You'll die with me, Doctor!"

And with two simple words, the Master shattered.

"I know."

And the fool stood there, waiting for death.

It was unacceptable. The Master would not survive without the Doctor. He _needed_ the Doctor. The Doctor couldn't die, the Master refused. He would...he would _die _before he allowed the Doctor to unnecessarily sacrificing himself-again-like the idiot he pretended not to be. The Doctor could survive in the case of the Master's death.

The Doctor had _people._

The Doctor had _friends._

The Doctor had ones who _loved_ him.

The Master only had the person who was about to go kill himself and then the Master would have no one.

He would be alone, once again, with only the drums for company.

He would not survive, let alone the rest of the universe.

Which ever option the Master chose, it would end in death. At least if he died this way, he would still have that little bit of himself that still managed to survive the ravages of insanity all those years. Plus-if the Master was truly honest with himself-this would be the less painful death. The Master hated pain, this was purely a selfish decision, not because he actually _cared_ for the fool of a time-lord, who was almost as bad as the stupid apes that the Doctor continuously chose for companions.

At least, that was what he told himself when he chose the option that would save the Doctor.

"Get out of the way," the Master snarled and the Doctor gaped at him, stunned. Rassilon didn't resist him as the Master forced his life energy out into bolts of electricity into the elder time lord's body. As the portal began to shrink, it started to try to drag the hosts and the Master into it. The Master allowed himself a glance at the Doctor.

The fear was still there, along with horror and a terrible sadness. As the Master looked at him, the Doctor stared back in protest to the Master's actions, worried for the Master's safety. There were too many unfamiliar emotions he was feeling all at once to sort anything concrete out. But the Master knew that he didn't want the Doctor to die. Not now, not today, not while he could do something about it.

The light was blinding, the pull of gravity immense. He saw the Doctor-rather than heard him-scream, "No!" He saw the Doctor reach for him to no success. He saw the Doctor look of such loss, utter loneliness, and a terrible sadness. But most importantly, the Master saw that the portal had left the Doctor alone and he remained standing in his spot, unaffected by the portal.

_And so, the Master fell through the portal as Lord of his fate and thought it...Good._

* * *

**_To Be Continued..._**

* * *

**_Thought Process:_**

All right, the next chapter is all original except for the Doctor Who cannon tidbits, but otherwise, it's mine. It's going to take place in a parallel universe, much like Pete's world. The difference there is the Doctor is a female (and so was that universe's Master, but that will all be taken care of later).

I'm thinking about put a poll up.

Do you want all the male to be females and vice versa in that universe (like Rose becoming Ross and Donna becoming Donald excetra, excetra...) or do you want the only change in gender being the parallel Doctor and the parallel Master (who will become the Mistress)?

The original Master will stay the same gender, of course.

Give me your feedback so I know which direction to take this story!

Happy Friday,

FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress

_Date Submitted: Friday, September 6, 2013._


	2. Serendipity

_**All translations, explanations, advertisements, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter.**_

**_Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them._**

* * *

_Through space and time the path unwinds_  
_ Leading me straight to you_  
_ Unexpected_  
_ Under the blessing of the stars_  
_ The life poured into us_  
_ To meet is so unexpected_

-Unexpected by Hyde

* * *

No one was supposed to be able to survive this, the Master once heard, falling through the vortex like this, unprotected. Time, the vastness of it all, surrounded him, encompassed him entirely. It burned him, everything burned in this shining, blinding realm. The wind that wasn't wind buffeted him from all sides, tearing through the Master, as if his flesh, muscles, blood, and bones weren't even there.

The sizzling, stinging, raw power of the vortex was not a habitable place for mortals, not like this. Even those stupid space-hoppers called vortex manipulators would be better than this. The Master just wanted it to all end, but at the same time...not. One would've thought that the vortex would be a silent place with the only sound being the not-wind. This turned out to be not the case, the Master and many of the time lords knew this.

There was a reason that they got inspired or ran away when gazing into the vastness of time; it was the sound of the universe. The ripples and waves in time worked much like sound waves, but only detectable to the time-aware species, since it was on a register that wasn't so much heard as felt within a time lord's mind and body. The song of Time was a continuous mental vocalization-much like a higher form of telepathy, since it didn't use anything as crude as actual words or fully structured thoughts.

It drug out emotions and feelings and memories from deep within the subconsciousness effortlessly, bringing one to a higher plane of a mental state. A state of existence one can only achieve after seeing the vastness of the vortex and staring into it. For most of the time lords-the ones who got inspired, usually-didn't fully attain that level.

They stayed in that state for only a brief period of time before the moment passed, only going through the shallower emotions and feelings as well as mere surface memories. Their experience didn't go very far, didn't probe too deep, so they saw only the beauty, only the good side of things, and that was fine. Those time lords still turned out to have the abilities and strength of character that was expected of them, but that was it.

They were nothing truly special.

It was the ones who ran away that experienced something wondrous, something beautiful and terrible all at once. They were the time lords that would turn out to be something, be something brilliant, something great-he better stop right there, he was beginning to sound like one of those sappy romantics or, perish the thought, like the Doctor of all people.

They were the ones who saw the universe in its entirety, the whole of it, the good with the bad. The emotions and thoughts probed farther than ever before and-most likely-farther than they would ever experience again. They could feel their cells-every last one of them-their blood as it flowed against the veins, every one of the air particles that they breathed into their lungs and exhaled. They could feel not just the tilt of the planet beneath their feet, not just the solar system, not just their galaxy, not just that part of the universe, but all of it.

For one brief moment, they could feel its vastness, its growth, its wonder, its glory, and its overwhelming amount of life. It was so big and they were so small, so tiny, so insignificant, nothing. They were nothing in the face of it all. Nothing could stop the universe from just swallowing them whole, consuming them in this vulnerable state and spreading them like dust across the stars, across all of time, never able to leave, and never able to return to the way they once were. This terrible sense of forever and the pain, the love, the joy, the sorrow, the hate, the-_everything_.

Never ending, never stopping, too much, too little, enough, not enough, more, less, imperfect, perfect, all of it, and none at all, all at the same time, in that one brief moment...

And they ran.

Because that was all they could do.

It was all anyone could do.

It was all the Master did as the drums assaulted him ever since, driving him deeper into the pit that was insanity, driving out the song of vortex, drowning it out. Now it was the music of the universe drowning out the drums. They were leaving him, growing fainter and slower.

_Ta-ta-ta-tap. _

_Ta-ta-ta...tap. _

_Ta-ta...ta...tap. _

_Ta...ta...ta...tap._

_...Ta...ta...ta..._Silence.

And then the world exploded around him, casting the Master out of the vortex. The not-wind whipping about him violently, rejecting him, trying to spit him back out the way he came, no longer wanting him. The original entrance to the portal was shut, sealed completely, and he could not continue on the original path, that way was barred from him like a strainer. So the Master was expelled through a weak point, a small tear in the fabric of the time vortex, to get rid of him, to fix that weak point so the tear would seal itself up. The Master flew out of the crack in the universe, making it first swing wide open before snapping shut with a finality that would never be challenged.

_The crack disappeared._

The Master stood there, burnt. Burnt from head to toe, his face devoid of everything but his eye-sockets. His skin was charred with bits of skin flaking off showing more blackened skin underneath some parts revealed seared bones that had been blackened as well. The sickening scent of burned flesh permeated the air as well as the sound of hissing as raindrops landed and evaporated on the scorched skin.

The Master was dying, he could feel it, he knew it.

He took a step forward and then another, groaning in pure agony. He needed to regenerate, but could he? The ritual had gone wrong, but that crazy nervous, excess energy was gone. Life energy no longer crackled and zipped around his body; it was no longer uncontrolled. The Master shook with the effort of standing in the rain, his breathing was labored as each breath of air was a battle to be fought from the pain it caused.

Above the din of rain, another sound could be heard, a snuffling sound followed by a quiet whine. A dog came into view and paused a foot away from the dying time lord, giving a sniff before letting out another whine. The Master scowled-or tried to, that is, the pain was too great for him to actually do it. The dog let out another whine before turning around in a small anxious circle and letting out a bark. It danced away a few steps, let out a bark, and repeated.

The Master knew many languages, but dog was not one of them-only the Doctor knew all those useless languages-but he could deduce that the idiotic mutt wanted him to follow it. The Master almost wanted to refuse just for the sake of refusing, but self-preservation forced the Master to reject that idea fairly quickly. Gritting his teeth against the pain, the Master followed the dog at a slow, pain-filled pace.

After the first three minutes and forty-nine seconds, the Master had to hand to the dog's persistence. It refused to let him give up, barking at him to keep going, to not stop, not yet. It was many, long, agonizing minutes later before he could just barely make out a voice calling for something through the rain. The dog let out a thunderous bark and the time lord winced at its volume.

The voice paused for a beat and then increased in its fervor. Obviously it was the owner of the dog and the destination that the mutt was fixed on leading the Master to. "I should have suspected something like this from you, mutt. Taking me to your stupid ape, expecting them to be able to help me," the Master scoffed, stopping. The dog let out another whine as it circled around him. "I'm not so desperate that I need to entrust myself to a stupid, blundering ape. Last time I did that, I got shot. I don't fancy doing that again, besides it's not like you could make me do it."

The Master managed it give something like a condescending smirk to the dog, who let out a bark that could've been in protest or warning. "What are you going to do, whine at me?" The injured and irate time lord taunted. The dog snarled out what could've been a threat or a stinging insult, it didn't matter. The Master was grudgingly forced to follow the dog on the off chance it might maim him if he didn't.

In a perfect world, the Master wouldn't be dying and he would have his laser screwdriver which he would use to disintegrate the insolent mutt, but as it was, the world was obviously flawed. The farther the Master followed, the louder the faraway voice got. In the distance, the Master could see a beam of light waving side to side as the human used it to try to see through the rain. The voice soon became clearer to the time lord as he struggled forward.

"K-9! K-9, where are you?! It's time to go home, K-9!" The Master snorted at the not-so-clever name, before that snort turned into a harsh cough. The Master took another step only to fall bonelessly to the ground. The dog started to bark urgently and ran towards the beam of light. "K-9! There you are, I've been look all... What is it, K-9?" K-9 continued to bark frantically before running back to the Master. "W-wait, K-9! Where are you going?" K-9's owner raced after him, completely baffled. K-9 stood next to the fallen time lord sniffing him worriedly before letting out a whimper.

The Master could faintly hear the sound of Wellington boots squishing and splashing on the soggy ground as the human ran towards the dog and him. "Dear Lord in heaven," a feminine voice gasped somewhere of to his right. The female let out a distressed cry at the sight of him and ran to his side when the time lord began to convulse in pain. The Master could sense her hands hover over his body, not touching him, but desperately wanting to help.

"Stay back," the Master managed to ground out to her, wanting no distractions while he tried to summon the energy to regenerate. There was a brief moment where the Master almost didn't succeed, where he almost lost the one battle that counted the most. The darkness had almost consumed him, but he fought with tooth and claw, not willing to die, not yet. Not today. A bright light erupted from all of his pores, encompassing him entirely.

Fire consumed him and burnt him, but differently from the way the time vortex had burned the Master. This one was changing him, healing him, making it so he could live to fight another day. It burned him in a way that was welcome, a way that relieved him, and assured that he would not go back to the cold and empty darkness. The regeneration energy exploded and flared around the Master, but he didn't care, he was triumphant, he was alive, he had _won. _

Finally, it ended, the energy died down and the light disappeared. The Master lied there, unmoving for that one moment, not wanting to move, not wanting to break the silence that had finally fallen. The blissful quiet silence uninterrupted by the sound of drums. So quiet, the Master could actually hear properly for the first time in centuries. He could hear his own breath and his own hearts. It was glorious.

Then it was broken by a small cry, causing the Master to tense, ready to fight or run, though he doubted that he could get very far. Footsteps stumbled unevenly towards him. "H-how is that possible? You-you just...what?" It was the female, he could hear her quiet, stammering, disbelieving voice. "You just lit up in flames, and yet you're still alive and even in better health than before, that's not possible!" Her voice was high with fright, but she still cautiously approached closer. "How did you-"

"Shut up," the Master growled and the female froze from where she stood, spooked. "Just shut up, you stupid ape. I don't need to listen to your yapping, not when I can finally hear myself _think._"

"But you're _alive, _how?" she persisted, vexing the irate time lord.

"It's called regenerating, not that your puny, insignificant, human mind would know what that is," the Master taunted, sitting upright, completely naked as the day he was born. The female bit her lip and resolutely refused to look away.

"But...but that's impossible. That was just a story, a-a dream I had and wrote down one day. It-it can't possibly be real." The Master took a loud and pointed sniff in the woman's direction.

"You shouldn't know these things, ape-and I know you're an ape, because you smell like one-so stop acting like you know what you're talking about," the Master narrowed his eyes, daring the woman to disobey him. She blinked, startled and unsure what the Master meant by the word "ape" and how she smelled like one. She resisted the urge to sniff herself to see if she really did smell like a monkey.

"Um, look, it's-" the woman started, gently.

"What did I just say?" The Master asked in a dangerously voice, causing the female to raise her arms in a gesture of peace.

"Not to talk about things that I have, apparently, no business knowing. I was just going to offer you the choice to spend the night at my house since it's raining, cold, and...and you don't have any...any clothes." Her eyes started to unconsciously slide downwards, before she visible caught herself and locked them back onto the Master's face.

"Oh, how _generous_ of you," the time lord's voice oozed sarcasm and dark humor, "I should wonder if there were any alternative motives in that decision."

The female frowned, not understanding the innuendo that the blonde in front of her was implying, "No, there aren't, I'm completely sincere. You were burnt to a crisp from what must've lightning and forced to...to..." she waved impatiently, "Whatever that was on my property. I-I suppose you're my responsibility now, especial since you don't look too good. As a doctor, I would recommend that you have a good lie down and-"

The Master sputtered indignantly, feeling ill for his recent regeneration and terribly offended at the idea of him being the responsibility of an ape-or _anyone's _responsibility, really-to _baby _over, quickly rose to his feet, "Listen to me, you wench, I'm not some _child _that you can-" The Master gagged abruptly, interrupting himself mid-sentence. He let out a sick-sounding choking noise before doubling over. The gagging sounds continued until he finally managed to cough out a cloud of orange atron energy.

The woman in front of him had eyes as big as saucers as she watched the cloud float away into the sky. The Master swayed as he stood up straight once again, his skin a white pallor. He shakingly put a hand on the female's shoulder for support in a way that was meant to be threatening, but only proved to show that the Master was weaker than he had been letting on and that she had been right in saying that he was sick. He was trembling with the effort to stay upright.

"You will take me to you house and I will stay there until after my regeneration is fully complete," the Master ordered gruffly, his voice sounding breathless as he tried to stay awake.

"A hospital would-" she started to protest.

The Master's head snapped upward, "_No_, I can't go there, I'm _obviously_ not _human_, what do you _think_ that they will do to me once they find out about that _not-so-little_ fact about me, you _stupid_ ape?" The hand tightened painfully, the time lord's strength temporarily returning. "I _will _be staying at your place of residence, do you hear me?"

"Fine! You just better hope that I still have my medical supplies from when I used to work at the hospital, you-" the female snapped before paling when the Master slumped forward, "Hey, I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. My house is just a few minutes walk away, come on, mister. Let's go, K-9." She went under the Master's arm until it was wrapped around her shoulders and she was mostly supporting his weight.

The Master groaned as a headache started to develop and black spots danced in his vision. His headache started to grow more and more severe in intensity as time went on. The Master needed to go into a healing coma after that particularly violent regeneration. He obviously still wasn't done yet. But for now, he needed to stay awake just a bit longer, the Master didn't fancy passing out in the rain butt-naked or just passing out in the rain in general.

The moment the Master heard the jingle of keys as the female who he forced to play host opened the door, the time lord decided that this was far enough. Just before his eyes closed for the final time, the Master caught a glimpse of familiar, worried, brown-eyes looking right back at him.

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**_To Be Continued..._**

* * *

**_Explanations:_ **

*So, the Master still has the same body as he previous regeneration. There is a perfectly logical explanation, but as there is a perfectly logical explanation why the Master didn't continue to get dragged to Gallifrey via time vortex the moment the drums disappear. Both of them should be explained within the next chapter.

*K-9 in this dimension is an actual dog. A very smart, _alien_ dog. This is about as far as I can spoil, more will be revealed within a few chapters' time.

_**Advertisement:**_

**TITLE: **Falling into Wonderland

**Author:** PenSmith433

**ID:** 5932706

**SUMMARY:** I am a sister, I am traveler through time and I am finding a path amongst the stars. I was lost, and so alone but I am learning things that no one could have ever thought possible. I started off so confused, but a Doctor showed me the universe. And I pray that it will never end.

**OPINION:** I love it. I seriously, completely loved it and its sequel too. I like how even the original lines in the original script in _'Doctor Who'_ and slight different and aren't written down word for word.

_**Thought Process:** _

Thank you for the reviews, _TheScandalInBelgravia_and _Superdani4ever_. They made me want to update when I should be catching up on sleep. _Scandal_, your opinion is noted, and you're right, if I do change everyone's gender (and I'm starting to think on just limiting it to the companions) their background story and personality will be different.

For now, I'm personally just playing around with the idea of Ross (Rose), Martin (Martha), and Daniel (Donna), and just leaving it at that. We'll see.

As it is, please vote on my profile so I know where to take this story to maximize your enjoyment.

On the plus side, a good friend of mine named Alicia did cover art for this story. On either Monday or Tuesday, I'll put it up. You can see more of Alicia's work on Deviantart. Her pen name is Uber-neko.

Happy Friday,

FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress

_Date Submitted: Friday, September 13, 2013._


	3. Reminiscence

_**All translations, explanations, advertisements, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter.**_

**_Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them._**

* * *

_Goodbye my friend, it's hard to die, _  
_When all the birds are singing in the sky; _  
_Now that spring is in the air, _  
_Pretty girls are every where; _  
_Think of me and I'll be there. _

_We had joy, we had fun, _  
_We had seasons in the sun; _  
_But the hills that we climb _  
_Were just seasons out of time._

-Seasons in the Sun by Me First And The Gimme Gimmes

* * *

Most people didn't know this little fact about time lords-probably because they were practically an extinct race-but they were relatively aware of their surrounding when they were unconscious. However, said little fact only applied if they were in a particularly vulnerable state, were paying attention, and consciously trying to hear what was going on around them. So if their attention was directed inward and they were buried with the distraction of thoughts, memories, and dreams, they would be effectively dead to the world around them. They would be unaware of what was being said or was happening in their presence, much like a child daydreaming in the middle of class.

The Master didn't pay much attention to the world around him while he was in his healing coma. In fact, he couldn't care less about what was going on around him unless it pertained directly to him in such a manner where he would need to pay attention. However, such a case was pretty rare in the female's house, as it appeared that she lived alone with no one but K-9 and the Master for company.

The only time the Master actually paid any attention was the hour and seventeen minutes it took the female to carry his unconscious body through the house, find some clothes to dress him in, actually dress him, and then drag him into a guestroom and set him in bed. The Master was currently dressed in the woman's pajamas, as she-apparently-favored flannel pajamas that were two to three sizes too big since they were more comfortable-or so the Master gathered from her anxious mumbling. After that though, things grew fuzzy from there.

The Master had developed a fever.

Now that his mental capacity-which was quite large, even for a time lord-was no longer being hindered by the drums and was now suddenly open in ways that hadn't been open since the Master was eight. He dealt with surviving the time vortex and then he just experienced a difficult regeneration. On top of that, the Master had spent an unreasonable amount of time outside in the freezing rain as naked as the day he was born. With all those factors combined, it was inevitable that the Master would develop a fever of some sort.

The next two days that were mostly spent battling the fever and finishing up the final touches on his regenerative process, the Master found to be rather domestic and unforgivably boring. The female never left his side for long, as if afraid that he would suddenly disappear or something. During the few times the Master was aware in his unconscious state, he caught bits and pieces of the woman whose house he was staying at.

She liked to listen to classical and instrumental music mainly with some exceptions here and there. She spent much of her time reading, the Master assumed, since he heard something that sounded like paper crinkling and crackling as it was moved about in some manner or another. The Master could remember the female fussing over him and her eventual discovery of and terrified surprise over his two hearts.

"Th-that's not possible, it can't be! 'The Diary of Impossible Things' was just that, my dream diary filled with fantastical things that can't possibly happen or exist that got accidentally published. T-time lords can't possibly exist, especially th-the one right in front of me that has two hearts, regenerated right in front of me, and...and... Oh, who am I kidding?" The female let out a slightly hysterical laugh, at that point, and quick left room to try to collect what was left of her addled wits, most likely.

The next and last time the Master paid any attention to the outside world was he smelled tea and what suspiciously smelled like celery. The scent of tea and possible-celery that pervaded the room was extremely helpful towards the Master's healing process, but it sent him into one, final, deep sleep for the next seventeen hours to get himself sorted. He had buried himself far into his mind and dreamed while his body fought the fever and completed the regeneration.

The Master dreamed of many things, his memories about his encounters and verbatim with the Doctor mostly, since that time lord had always been a part of his life in some shape or form. Now that the Master thought about it, he should probably start searching for the Doctor as soon as he woke up and took care of some loose ends...like the female and her dog.

The Master briefly considered the idea of killing them both once everything was said and done, but quickly discarded that notion. It would only serve to make the Doctor upset, and dealing with a sulking, irritated, child of a time lord was not something the Master wanted. Plus, it would only make it that much harder to get the Doctor to want to trust the Master and do what the elder time lord wanted him to do.

How troublesome, it appeared that he would have to think a tad harder to find his solution on how best to deal with the nuisances. Maybe he could erase the woman's memories into a blank slate and drop the mutt off in the middle of nowhere? No, the Doctor would still protest against this, maybe not as strongly as he would if the Master outright killed them both, but still enough to the point where the idea was scrapped with only some reluctance.

The Master supposed that he could terrorize the female and maybe kick the dog on his way out once the human outlived her usefulness. The Doctor might pout or be mildly exasperated, but the Doctor did-or used to do-that anyway whenever the Master poked fun at him or jokingly-jokingly!-flirted with the time lord just to get a rise out of him.

That thought alone made the Master smirk internally, the Doctor was just too easy to wind up, especially in his current regeneration. But that could also work against the Master if he wasn't careful. The Doctor would be suspicious about the Master's intentions and the young time lord would rile himself up without needing any additional help from the subject of his worries.

Maybe the female could help with that, as the Doctor always had a soft spot for those stupid apes. Assuming that said female knew what she was talking about concerning regeneration, or, at least, a small part of it, chances were she could lead him to the Doctor or someone else who could. The Master didn't really get a good look at her face, so really, she could be any one of those past companions or personal from either Torchwood or UNIT, or, if none of those options, she was least a friend of one of the said options.

But assuming that the female did know the Doctor and was able to contact him, what then? The Master hated being weak and dependent on someone, let one have the person he was dependent on know he was weak and dependent and any way in a fragile state. The Master was loathe to admit it, but he needed the Doctor.

_The knowledge that the other time lord needed him too made the Master __feel a small bit better about the whole thing._

The Master needed help coping with all that silence. Without the drums to drive him on to pull most of his usual tricks and execution of plans that he often did, the Master was at a loss at what to do with himself. The Master was sure if he really wanted to, he could go back to dominating the universe-or at least attempt to-but what would be the point? What would he do with himself after completing that goal? What would even be left of both the Master and the universe?

The Master knew none of the answers to these questions and that scared him, unknown variables scared him. He liked to know all the cards on the table before he made a gamble, he wasn't a risk-taker, not normally, even though for all the world he gave the impression of one. 'Find the Doctor and figure out things from there. He never seems to have a plan when he does things like this, yet he manages to succeed nearly every time. For once, I will try it myself and see what happens, be impulsive for once.' With that in mind, the Master relaxed, letting his thoughts fade away as he drifted off to a deeper, more fitful sleep.

When he woke up for real-his eyes fluttering open and all his senses becoming fully aware of the world around him-the Master found himself to be blinded by a damp, white cloth. Originally, it had rested on his forehead, probably as an attempt to help bring down the Master's once raging fever, had gradually slid down to cover his eyes. Irritably, the Master swiped it out of his face and attempted to sit up, the key word being 'attempted.' Hindering this action was a slim upper-body that rested on his torso. With a surprised grunt, the time lord fell back to his previous position on his back.

Curiously, the Master craned his neck downwards to properly get a good look at the culprit. A small, pale face peered back at him, sound asleep and dead to the world. Soft, pink lips were parted to make a small 'O' while a pert nose flared with each inhale and exhale. Long eyelashes on closed eyelids caused the shadows under those eyes to become slightly more prominent, this person had quite obviously not gotten any sleep in a while.

Highly expressive eyebrows were slightly furrowed as if puzzling over something. Long, wavy, dark, coppery-brown hair that fell in soft curls draped in a loose pony-tail on the shoulder closest to him. The natural odor that surrounded the body suggested that this person hadn't showered for the same amount of days that the Master had been in this regeneration.

All of this added up to the human female whose house the Master had been staying at for the past three days. The longer the Master stared at her, the more that nagging feeling that he had seen her somewhere before bothered him. The Master scowled at his apparently terrible memory, frustrated that it decided to be uncooperative with him at the moment.

Since memories were intangible objects and the Master had no way of showing them the effects of his ire, he turned to the next best thing. "Wake up," the Master ordered, shoving the woman and making her slide down his body a foot.

"Wha' 's goin' on?" She asked dazedly, sitting up in her chair, her eyes mere slits as she looked around with heavy-lidded eyes. The female let out a yawn so deep, that she shook with the force of it, her body wracking with small, temporary tremors. "Yeah?" The woman asked him, rubbing her eyes. "What is it, Mart-" she caught a glimpse of the Master staring at her impassively and cut herself off, "...Oh, you're awake."

The Master scoffed at her power of observation and rolled his eyes. By the shade of her blush of embarrassment, he didn't need to tell her just how obvious that statement was. Her eyes, which had been previously cast away in embarrassment, turned back to the Master, focusing intently on his face. Familiar brown eyes studied his appearance thoroughly with a practiced ease. After 2.45 seconds, the Master realized with a slight shiver why those eyes looked so eerily familiar, they belonged to the Doctor.

A light brown flecked with small, miniscule bits of gold stared right back at him. The Master felt his metaphorical hackles starting to rise and he glared at the woman in front of him, a woman who had the same appearance as the Doctor. He gave a subtle sniff only to smell human, not time lord. The Master's scowl deepened, "What's your name, ape?"

The female blinked, her intense look fading, "Jane Smith, and your fever seems to have finally broke, but I would recommend staying in bed another day. Now, just who do I have the pleasure of having as my rather unorthodox patient?"

"I am the Master."

A funny look went across Jane's face before it cleared in realization, "Oh, I had forgotten that time lords use titles instead of actual names. Um, nice to meet you, Master." A smirk briefly flickered across his face, until he realized that Jane merely saw it as a name having no more special connotations than the name Billy-Bob-Joe. That killed his smug amusement rather quickly. The Doctor used to do the exact same thing with only the occasional comment of the Master being a psychologist's wet dream.

"Well, if you're feeling up to it, you can take a shower in the bathroom down the hall. I'll be taking one downstairs. Sorry to tell you this, but you might have to stay in those pajamas for a while longer until I can go buy you some new ones, possibly later today once I'm sure you won't relapse back into your miniature coma." Jane teased, trying to ease the tension that was mostly the Master's fault.

He gave her a disdainful look, before swinging his feet off the side of the bed and striding out of the room, going towards the right. "Um, Master, it's the other way..." A growl could be heard in the hall as the time lord stalked in the opposite direction from the one he originally started with. The bathroom door slammed shut and the shower being turned on could be heard. Jane let out a muffled laugh and went downstairs to take a shower herself. Meanwhile, the Master was trying to figure out everything that had happened to him in the past eighty-two hours and twenty-nine minutes.

For one thing, when he looked into the mirror, he noticed that he still had the same appearance as his last regeneration. He had dark and stormy brown eyes, still chaotic, but they no longer held any madness. A five o' clock shadow covered his jawline, it hadn't grow any longer which was good. Scruffy blonde hair that two regenerations ago used to be a dark brown-blasted Lucy had mucked up the ritual, making him a blonde from the stress to his body it caused. And-after he chucked off the flannel pajamas-he was able to confirm that everything about this regeneration was exactly the same as the last.

Rubbing his jaw as he stepped into the warm stream of water, the Master wondered why that was. He didn't have any conscious desire to remain in this Saxxon-regeneration, which usually a time lord needed to have to control their regenerations in such a manner. Of course, the regeneration had to be one that wasn't as violent as the one he had just experienced. Stupid Lucy, messing up his ritual. If it wasn't for her ruining everything, things might've turned out differently, like the Master wouldn't have been blonde, for instance. He pulled down his hair so it was in front his eyes to glare at it scornfully. The Master bet that he wouldn't be able to regenerate normally ever again after that catastrophe and some how surviving his fall through the vortex.

And what was that all about, not that he regretted being alive, but how was he still breathing? When the portal first opened only the hosts of time lords got pull through, but as it got bigger, the Master did too. The Doctor alone remained unaffected-except, perhaps, emotionally. The only reason that both the hosts and him got pulled through was because they all had a connection to the time locked a Gallifrey on the other side of the portal, the hosts of time lords because they were originally from there, they were-in essence-Gallifrey itself. The Master was only dragged in because of the drums being the signal to Gallifrey.

The time lord still didn't know how to feel about their disappearence. On one hand he felt relief and the greatest triumph in their absence, but on the other, his mind felt so empty and the Master didn't really know what to do with homself since the obsessive motivation to conquer the universe was all but completely gone now. He wouldn't mind doing that and returning to his old game of toying with the Doctor, but there was no need or strong desire to do so. He felt almost jaded at the thought of trying to start all of that up again. The Master was getting tired of it, but he haad gotten very, very close two attempts ago...

He banished the idea from his mind, not one to do the same thing twice. Wasn't that the definition of insanity, doing the same, exact thing over and over again, expecting a different result each time? The Master may have been mad and utterly barmy, but he wasn't willing to add insanity to the list, since by that definition, it would also imply that he was a fool. The Master was many things, but fool was not one of them and he wasn't planning on ever becoming one.

Then it hit him.

The only reason why he wasn't burning with the rest of the time lords and ladies on Gallifrey for all of eternity was because the drums disappeared, because the signal was lost upon the destruction of its generator. The Master recalled that the moment that the white-point star was destroyed the drums started to disappear and the portal collapsed after the Doctor shot his gun. Oh, if that brown-eyed time lord was there, the Master could have kissed him! As it was however, the Doctor was not there and the Master had to simply settle for grinning manically.

He guessed that it would simply have to wait until the next time he saw that stupid child of a time lord. The Master supposed that it wouldn't be too hard to locate him, especially after he called on the assistance of his oh-so-stupid ape and her mutt. With their help, the Master was sure he could hack into Torchwood. He then could also collect the necessary tools and supplies to make another laser screwdriver and a distress beacon set to transmit to the Doctor's TARDIS as well as a tracker set to only find time lords. It would work as long as the Doctor didn't exchange bio-data with another species or something.

The blonde got out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist and sneered at the pajamas that laid innocently on the ground where he last threw them. The Master loathed the idea of wearing them, but he had no other choice other than walking around with nothing but a towel on. Although that thought was appealing, the Master knew that he wouldn't get the reaction he desired from Jane as she was able to clothe a naked Master in a mature and business-like manner.

Speaking of Jane, if the Master listened closely, he could hear her puttering around downstairs, possibly cooking something for the both of them. The Master found that she was on the fast track to become becoming his least-hated ape, there wasn't any annoying drama with her going on so far, but, for all he knew, she might start the hysterics the moment he went downstairs.

He hoped not, because it would be a shame to kill someone who was so reminiscent of the Doctor.

* * *

**_To Be Continued..._**

* * *

**_Explanations:_**

*I based the post-regeneration fever from the one that the Doctor got when he turned into Ten.

*Did you see what I did there? For the Original-Doctor, it was the Journal of Impossible things. Now it's the Diary of Impossible Thing. Huh? Huh? Get it? ...Tough crowd...

*Those theories that the Master had are from my own creation, feel free to use them if you want to, just make sure to give me credit. :)

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**TITLE: **All This Time

**AUTHOR: **

**ID: **9125279

**SUMMARY: **There are stories that stretch across the universe all telling the tale of one man. A good, mad man who travels through time and space in his big blue box with a few companions he picked up along the way. I was never supposed to be one of those companions. And now the story's different. Now it's the story of my life with the Doctor that was never supposed to be. Developing 10/OC.

**OPINION: **This story blew me away from chapter one. **THIS IS HOW A DOCTOR WHO FAN FICTION IS MADE! READ IT. BELIEVE IT.**

**Thought Process: **

So... I just came back from my Mother's Cousin's wedding, it was brilliant. For, it wasn't just _any_ plain, old wedding, it was a steam-punk, alternative wedding. All the clothes for the wedding party were home-made, the bride and her mother are professional clothes-makers on Esty, you should totally check them out!

KMKDesignsllc

Yeah... the new cover is up, as promised, but it was an adventure to get it up there. It took four tries in over two days to get it to upload via image manager, but it could've been worse. It some the Master and how I see the Fem!Doctor. If you want to see it in a large size, go onto my profile and click the link to the 'Fan Fictional Authoress' on Facebook.

So, I noticed that some of you people had already guessed that "Jane" is the Doctor. Was I that obvious about it or something?

Well don't get too settled into that idea, a plot twist is coming up. Muwah-ha-ha-ha-ha...

Seriously, you won't see it coming.

Hopefully.

Last time I said that to myself, you guys saw it coming, so I'm going to be more careful this time around.

...

Thank you: TheScandalInBelgravia, Superdani4Ever, Mabudachi-trio, ManSpider, and BloodLily16.

And BloodLily16? Your PM thing was off, so I couldn't properly message you back, sorry.

And since you don't have an account ManSpider, thanks for your super awesome compliment! :)

**SUPER IMPORTANT NOTICE!**

_Do you guys want the next chapter to be from Jane's POV?_

I would be willing to do it if you want me too, or I could keep this story solely from the Master's POV. Your choice.

Also, the poll will be open for the next three chapters I think, so you still got time. As it is, for changing genders of the other cast, I only really want to do Ross, Martin, and Donald/Daniel (I'm thinking Donald instead of Daniel for Donna, but I'm wavering between both), since they are the main big three and I knew that there would be drastic changes to 'Doctor Who' cannon and story-lines, just for there being gender changes.

Like Bad Wolf might have been altered, because if the Doctor was a female and Rose was still Rose, she may have just followed the Doctor's orders, because she might not have been in love with her, the female Doctor. Martha wouldn't have grown up and developed into the woman Mickey would one day marry, both of them wouldn't be fighting for UNIT-in fact, Martha might not have been a companion at all, because I think she was sorta-in-love with the Doctor from day one with that kiss-that-turned-out-to-not-have-meant-anything. And Donna...Donna might have gone with the Doctor the first time he offered or refused both times.

A whole bunch of things would have changed and will still change even if I do flip their genders. Whichever way I do it, the cannon story-line will end up differently.

So, yeah, vote. :)

Happy Friday,

FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress,

_Date Submitted: Friday, September 20, 2013._


	4. Suspicion

**_All translations, explanations, advertisements, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter._**

**_Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them._**

* * *

_You must be different, been rearranged_  
_Can't pin it down but I know it's not the same_

-Premonition by John Fogerty

* * *

"I think if you wear this, you should be fine. Mr. Grimwald won't mind you borrowing them until we can get you some clothes of your own as long as I wash his as soon as you're done with them, Master," Jane remarked as she took some clothes out of the closet in the master bedroom. They were obviously made for someone a good head taller than the time lord. Jane noticed his scowl and chided him for it. "Now, don't be like that. Mr. Grimwald's son, George, is about as tall as you are, but he's absolutely _tiny_, thin as a rail! These clothes are your best bet, unless you'd prefer the clothes of Mrs. Grimwald...?"

"Give them here...do you have a belt?" The Master asked sulkily, as he snatched the clothes out of her hand, privately thinking to himself that Jane couldn't boast to be much better than George Grimwald. She was doing a rather good impression of a human ceramic doll, looking small and very fragile indeed.

"Here use this one." The blonde took the proffered belt before undressing. Jane suddenly became intensely occupied with straightening the clothes in the closet that they had just ransacked moments ago, the Master smirked.

"I thought that you said that this was_ your_ property?"

The brunette paused, "Oh, it is; _well_, not _really_, just temporarily. You see, I'm house sitting for the Grimwalds until they return. It's already been five months and I've been house sitting for all that time, since the Grimwalds have been busy with 'family issues,' or so they tell me." There was a pause where the time lord guessed that the human had made a face, "Ugh, _domestics_..."

Jane straightened up the last button up shirt and turned around, only to wrinkle her nose at the Master who was only half-way dressed: his shirt wasn't even on yet. She didn't turn back around. Instead, she watched in an almost impatient manner as he took his sweet time buttoning up said shirt. She frowned irritably, "You're worse than a woman. It shouldn't take _that_ long to get dressed."

The Master just snickered as he buttoned the last button. Jane rolled her eyes good naturedly, "We'll go to _'Land's End'_ and pick up some clothes that will actually last you a while. These suits look nice, but they're hardly durable, not to mention expensive." She caught the look that the Master was giving her and felt the need to defend herself, "Hey, hey, I used to be a doctor, but some things happened that eventually forced me to retire early. Now I just do odd jobs for rich blokes like the Grimwalds. Usually, I get chosen by the older couples or by the aging bachelors, apparently there is something about my face that just screams trustworthy according to a good friend of mine."

They walked down the stairs to the main entry-way. The human opened the closet and moved to take out a vaguely familiar long, brown, duster-type coat, but she changed her mind at the last second and took out a black leather jacket instead. Turning to the Master, Jane laughed as a memory occurred to her. "I used to milk it for all it was worth when I was dealing with extremely difficult patients, five words and a smile was all it took most of the time, if I recall correctly."

"You're full of it," the Master scoffed, a small smirk on his face as they put on their shoes. Jane wore raspberry-colored trainers and the Master borrowed George Grimwald's brown tennis shoes as both males had the same shoe size. He just suspected that the only reason those patients, old couples, and bachelors complied was because of her face being not just trustworthy, but also naive, exploitable, and _very_ attractive.

For an ape.

For a _stupid_ ape.

The Master and Jane stepped outside and to the time lord's surprise, made their way through the extensive backyard instead of making a bee-line to the garage. There was a garden made solely of hydrangea bushes with their pungent aroma. The bushes had a variety of hues, attesting to the wide range of acidity in the soil. There were blues, greens, mauves, whites, pinks, and many shades in between. The bushes were taller than him, but they absolutely towered over Jane. The Master wouldn't have been surprise if she had gotten hopeless lost in the backyard because of this.

"No, I'm quite serious, all I have to say is, 'Trust me, I'm the Doctor,' and they'll listen to whatever I say!" The Master froze, staring at Jane in disbelief. There was no possible way that she could be the Doctor. She smelled human and acted like an idiotic ape, there was just... It couldn't be possible. Sure, the Doctor could've turned himself into a human, but there wasn't a reason for him to do so, was there?

He loved his TARDIS and way of life too much to do something like that unless he had no other choice. Besides, if Jane was actually the Doctor, that would mean that he had regenerated, into a _female,_ no less! Back when Gallifrey still existed, it was against the law to regenerate into the opposite sex, and even though Gallifrey was gone, the Master had a hunch that the goody-goody time lord would still comply with it anyway. Even though he and the Master were the last of their kind and the law had made an exception for cases like this one...

The Master most certainly would not have volunteered to do the regenerating, even though the law specified that the one with the most regenerations left must do so. Making a fully functional loom that actually operated correctly was the path that he would have taken most likely, instead of that.

"Oh, the crack is gone! That's strange, there used to be a big, old crack here on this tree and now it's gone! ...Come to think of it, this is not too far away from where I found you and you blew up in my face, weird. Anyway, the TARDIS is back here inside the shed-"

"What?!" The Master interrupted, flabbergasted.

"The shed, it's back over here-"

"No," the Master exclaimed, cutting Jane off again, "before that."

"Um, you blew up into a fiery inferno? In my face? A face I quite like, thank you very much?"

"No! Something about a TARDIS, explain, now!"

"Oh, why didn't you say so? She's a beauty! She's big and blue and-"

"A TARDIS," the Master stated flatly, suspecting that he was missing something crucial here.

"Not _a_ TARDIS, but _the_ TARDIS. It stands for Traveling Around Relatively Dangerously In Style. She's a Honda NR750, brand new-_well_, to me anyway, I got her second hand-with royal blue paint job, and she's utterly _brilliant_." The Master stared after Jane in utter disbelief as she skipped-skipped!-over to the small shed that had been previously unnoticed by him, as it had been hidden from view quite thoroughly by the hydrangea bushes. He briefly wondered if the Grimwalds were still aware of its existence.

The doll-like woman slipped inside the shed and was out of the time lord's view for a brief while, but that didn't stop him from being able to hear her quite clearly through the gloom of the shed. There was a sound of a tarp being tossed to the floor, a grunt of exertion, and the motorcycle being wheeled later, Jane reappeared, totting a rather large-in comparison to the owner-blue motorcycle.

Grinning, she pushed it carefully down the dirt path back the way they came to the driveway with the Master speechless following not too far behind. Once Jane and the motorcycle were on the tarmac, she put down the kick stand and dug around in the leather saddle-bags. After rooting around, she triumphantly tossed him a jet-black helmet and a thick leather jacket before bringing out her own gear: leather gloves, leather chaps, and a royal blue helmet to match her motorcycle.

Catching sight of the male time lord's expression, Jane hurried to explain, "You see, the last person I worked for, Andrew Doven-Browns, had this beauty in disrepair-he didn't want it anymore-and was going to toss her into the scrap heap! The man would rather just throw things away and get new ones instead of fixing them himself! A very careless man, he was, I didn't work for much longer after I bought the bike. He conned me, I suppose, as my mechanic who fixed her up for me certainly thought so. He was brilliant, this mechanic.

"His name's Jon Redfern, a nice guy, even if he does ask a bit too many questions. He fixed her right up for me at an honest rate and, on top of that, gave her a paint job for no extra charge! He said I would like this color and he was quite right about it, it's familiar, almost nostalgic..." Jane mused almost to herself, before continuing, "And, since I had a motorcycle, I decide to go the whole nine yards. I got my leather armor on so I don't kill myself by accident as well as some more of the more important bits of leather armor, just in case I get an unexpected passenger. So, there we are."

Jane sucked in a deep breath after her long monologue, grinning at the Master in a cheeky manner, "Welcome abroad to me, quite frankly, brilliant mode of transportation. Please keep your head, arms, legs, and any other appendages inside the vehicle at all times, unless you want something-most likely painful-to happen to said appendage, like it getting amputated, without any atheistic. It also doesn't hurt to hold on tightly, but absolutely _no funny business_ is allowed, since your designated driver still retains the right to kick you off at any time they deem appropriate. This includes the moment when the vehicle is in motion."

Jane imitated an automated voice that one may find in an amusement ride quite accurately as she hopped on her bike. A messed up amusement park that the Master wouldn't mind visiting, if one like it existed. "Not even in your wildest dreams would that happen, ape. You're too young to learn about those acts of pleasure yet." the Master mocked as he got on behind her, putting his helmet on his head and sliding his arms securely around Jane's waist. Even through the blackened visor, he could see her hot blush which she quickly covered by putting her helmet on as well.

"...Not my fault I've got a baby-face..." Jane muttered as she kick-started the engine. The motorcycle roared to life and Jane waited a few seconds for her bike to warm up completely and, perhaps, unnecessarily. Then she revved the engine and they took off down the drive-way, quickly gaining speed. The Master didn't know what he originally expected when he found out that Jane owned a motorcycle and he was supposed to ride it with her driving, but it wasn't what he thought it would be at all. Jane was actually what he could honestly call a skilled driver as she piloted the motor-bike with relative ease.

Trees and landscape whipped by as they sped down the driveway, which soon became a road, which soon became a motorway. Countryside melted away and yielded to more urban settings and they had to slow down as they got close to a town. A sign greeted them, boldly proclaiming:

**ENTERING**

EST. 1762

**OAKHAM**

There was a blue insignia in between the 'EST.' and the '1762,' but they passed by too quick for him to get a good look at it. They had remained quiet the whole journey here, but only because the sound of wind rushing past them and the helmets muffling their voices ensured that, even if they did try, it would be a wasted effort anyway.

Eventually, they slowed to a stop in front of large brick building, and Jane cut off the engine. The purring of the bike that the Master had become acquainted with for the past nineteen minutes was suddenly absent and it aroused him from his daydreaming state. The human hopped off the bike after she placed the kickstand down and her passenger had gotten off. Whipping the helmet off and putting it in the saddle bags, she turned around and held of her hand. "Helmet," Jane said, wriggling her fingers in the gesture of, 'give it.'

Her tone of voice wasn't cross or annoyed, even though the context seemed to suggest it. Jane had a care-free look and merely what to just get going on their-or rather, _her_-errands. The time lord tsked, "Ever heard of manners, ape?" Brown-eyes blinked in surprise and slight confusion, before widening in realization.

"Oh, I am so, so thick! I'm being rude again, aren't I? Nasty habit, it is. I can't get over it-" The Master interrupted her before she could work herself up back to her regular sociable-self.

"It doesn't matter, I honestly don't give a damn," he dismissed her almost-but-not-quite apology. "Let's just get this part done with, so we can get started on more important things, like technology."

Jane frowned, trying to think, "Oakham doesn't have anything like that."Jane paused, reconsidering her words, "_Well,_ when I say that Oakham doesn't have anything, I mean that it has some small stores, and when I say small store, I really mean those cute, little shops. I like shops. Shops are good, very good, things to have in a small town like this, good revenue... And by the look on your face I've digressed again. Anyway, the closest place I can think off that could serve your needs would be Leicester, but that's around forty minutes away, and when I say forty, I really mean-"

She caught herself when she saw the time lord's look that he was giving her as they walked into the small mall. "Er, right, any how, let's take care of things here first before we go to Leicester, eh?" Jane asked bleakly, catching on to the fact that the Master really didn't care for her babbling about trivial information at the moment and that maybe it would be best if she just stopped talking.

"Jane!" A shop girl cried excitedly, rushing up to give her a hug. "I haven't seen you in ages! Been holed up at the Grim-family mansion, haven't you?"

"Well," the coppery-haired woman bit her lip to stop herself from confessing the _real _reason why she had been gone. "Yeah, yeah, I've been, a-a-a bit...busy," she finished weakly. Thankfully, her friend was a bit too distracted by the aloof Master standing behind Jane to notice her fumbling mistruth. He red his eyes, he should've known that the human was staying with was a rubbish liar of all things.

Looks like he had to salvage the situation while he still could, just like always.

"Hello, I'm Harold Saxxon, a new friend of Jane's from Cardiff. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss...?" The Master asked channeling all his charm into those two sentences and into his broad smile. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jane stare at his as if he sprouted a second head, looking completely stunned at the fact that he could use manners. The time lord smirked inwardly, how else would he have become such a successful prime minister other than the blatant use of brainwashing, hypnosis, and killing of all opposition?

He manipulated people using his undeniable charisma, of course.

"Oh," the shop girl's eyes fluttered from the Master's charming aura...and quite possibly from the slight mental attack of, _'Trust him! Trust him! Do whatever he and his stupid ape, er, your friend ask or require of you.'_ Blinking one final time, she continued on as if nothing happened, "Oh, my name is Margret Joelle, yeah... Um, can I help you two with anything? Jane?"

"Um, just some new clothes, Harry's suitcase got misplaced by the...airplane...luggage...people. So he needs a new wardrobe, casual clothes mainly, since he's already got a suit and this is supposed to be more of a-a-a trip than anything else, yeah..." Jane finished awkwardly, still a completely rubbish liar. Apparently the Master was going to have to teach her the art of proper lying. He wouldn't tell her about her tics of biting the inside of her cheek or running her hand through her hair though, all the better to make it seem like he was all knowing.

"Alright, let's go to the men's section Mr. Saxxon. I'll take care of it from here, Jane. Molly's missing you by the counter." Jane stared at her friend, surprised by the dismissal in her tone and how Margret didn't even look away from her blank stare of the Master's face.

'Hormones, I've lost my friend to hormones and the Master's apparently overwhelming amount of pheromones. At least I've still got dear, sensible Molly to count on.' As she trudged over to the counter, Jane couldn't help but give out a passing retort, "Fine, but you two better come back at a reasonable hour."

"Ha!" The Master exclaimed, letting a bark of surprised laughter, he honestly hadn't expected Jane's return volley from their private inside joke earlier about Jane being to young to know about anything of a sexual nature. This rebuttal from the copper-haired female pleased him, and he mentally accepted the challenge that they tacitly agreed on.

Her friend Margret was far easier to control than he expected, there was little to no resistance and she only spoke when necessary now that she was under-control and even then it was strictly business.

Just how he liked it.

As soon as the Master and Jane left the store, the control over her would be relinquished and Margret would return to normal until the next time he reestablished control over her puny ape mind. As it was, he now had five pairs of jeans, six shirts, three hoodies, six pairs of socks, and two packages of underwear. Margret carried everything, of course. At the check-out desk, he could see Jane cheerfully talking with an older female who appeared to be in her late forties. The look passed between them was similar to what might pass between a particularly close mother and daughter.

Caution would have to be exercised around them both, more specifically the older female as she seemed to be especially clever to the Master. Reluctantly, he released his hold on the shop girl's mind. Margret blinked rapidly a few times, before she brightened up, her considerably more bubbly nature rising to the surface and a cheerful blush of happy optimism blanketed her cheeks, no longer its original blank and pale pallor. The no longer mindless-or the Master should say brainwashed, because in his opinion she was still mindless-shop girl called out to the two females at the desk. "Hello you two, I'm back with Harold, here."

When they got closer though, the shop girl let out a cry of surprise, "Jane! You're wearing normal clothes for once instead of those ridiculous, pinstripe skirt-suits you always insist upon wearing! Pants, you're wearing pants!" At the mention of pinstripe suits, the Master unconsciously thought of the Doctor and his ridiculous suit and tie get-up. His stomachs rolled uncomfortably as he made another parallel between the small human female and the childish time lord. Unbidden, his eyes locked onto large brown ones and he stared her down. A thought stirred up in the back of his mind and almost made itself known, but before the Master could make this huge epiphany, his concentration was broken.

"-yeah, Harry's staying over at the mansion with me. He's being a perfect patient since he's been under the weather the past few days. K-9's been a big help, keeping us both company. We're planning on going to Leicester later today after we pick up my suits from the dry-cleaners. We need to get some tech-supplies among other things. It's a pretty busy day today, so we're going to have to leg it now. Be seeing you later, Margret and Molly."

Jane cheerfully hugged both of the women before grabbing the bags and the Master's hand, leading them both out of the building as quickly at possible. "Oh, Master, you have no idea just how close you were from Molly's displeasure. She doesn't believe the cover story for a second and she thinks that your some bloke that's trying to take advantage of me. You were a hair's breath away from her giving you the third degree, it didn't help that you were staring at me the whole time. Is something wrong?"

For a moment, the Master briefly considered telling her what had been bothering him all day, but dismissed it. "No, I was just wondering the best way to shut you up." The Master purposely invaded Jane's personal space as she packed up the clothes into the saddle-bags, breathing down her neck. A hot blush covered the back of her neck, her face, and even her ears.

Edging away, she frowned at him, uncomfortable at the attention he was giving her, "Stop that! You're making me feel funny, _old man_."

"It's the Master to you, _child_. You're hardly out of the cradle, stop deluding yourself. I do it because your reaction is funny and you make it so easy to get a rise out of you," the Master explained, completely amused by her response.

"Whatever you say, old man," Jane teased, laughing as she put on her helmet. The time lord smirked as he put on his helmet as well, getting on the bike behind the young woman. "We're going to the dry-cleaner's before we head to Leicester. Do you have any idea of what you might need?"

He rolled his eyes, even though she couldn't see it, "I have a far better idea of what I will need than you ever will."

"_Well_ then..." Jane muttered under her breath as she kick-started the engine. After a brief pause, they were off, roaring down the street with a subdued purr, which, again, surprised the Master. The muffler on this bike worked very well, making the bike not much louder than most cars. He noticed that as they drove around town that many people waved at Jane with rather large smiles on their faces. He studied the woman in front of him intently, what made her so important?

That thought had been rattling around in his mind for the past hour and thirteen minutes. Her eyes, face, personality, quirks, speech patterns, supposed clothing choices, the mutt, the "_TARDIS,_" everything about her was familiar, like he _knew _her. It was boring him to no end to not know her and yet, at the same time...

The answer was staring at him in the eye; it was right in front of his face. Worse, it was glaringly obvious on top of it all, but he was still blind to it. It was like Jane Smith was this living, breathing perception filter, always in the corner of his eyes. There but out of reach, _so_ very frustrating. The Master just needed another hint, another clue, just _something. _Something definitive that he could use to piece the puzzle together.

"You coming?" Jane asked as she took her helmet off, looking at him over her shoulder.

"Fine," the Master sighed, his speculative stare hidden by the helmet's tinted visor. He didn't really want to go inside with her, merely wanting to go to Leicester so he could get the necessary supplies needed for his technology, but the Master also needed to keep an eye on this ape. It would be a very mundane but essential chore. It would get him that much closer to his old friend who hopeful still thought that the original offer was valid after all the absolute bollocks that the Master had pulled.

"It won't be long, I know that you want to get going to Leicester, but we need to pop in here quickly and then we'll leave. You can even leave your helmet on if you want!"

"I'll pass,"the Master drawled as he slipped the helmet off of his, but he continued to hold on to it and stuck it under his arm. Jane went ahead of him and pushed the door open, which let out a jingle because of the bells dangling on the top of said door.

"Jon? Hello, I'm here to pick up my suits!" Jane called, her arms pushing on the front desk, making her lift off the ground a few inches. Feet dangling, Jane let her legs swing back and forth as she waited.

After a moment or two, a masculine voice could be heard, "Jane, is that you? You're later than usual in picking up your suits..." A man came into view, he took one look at the Master and his voice faltered. His eyes zeroed in on the time lord, taking in his biker gear and how the only bike was the "TARDIS" outside. He wasn't truly anything special. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a light tan, medium build, and slightly attractive looking. 'Jon' appeared to have a typically friendly personality and was your average 'nice guy.' In other words, he was completely and utterly boring, not worth any of the Master's attention.

"Sorry about that, I've been a bit busy helping a friend of mine. This is Harry, he's visiting from Cardiff and staying here for a bit over at my place," Jane somehow managed to remain mostly oblivious to the tension between the Master and Jon as well as their stare down. The Master was glaring at Jon, because it was obvious that the ape had an issue with him, but the time lord had no idea what it possibly could be. Jon was glaring because he had no clue what sweet, little Jane was thinking, letting some sketchy-looking man stay with her at the Grimwald's house. Jane was merely trying to lower the testosterone level in the air by attempting to keep the mood upbeat and light-hearted.

It wasn't working.

In fact, the Master would go so far as to say that it was making everything worse. "Jon is the one I told you about who was able to save the TARDIS from being thrown in the scrap heap. He's a brilliant mechanic-"

"Who also appears to be working at the dry-cleaners," he interrupted, smirking as he tried to rile up the male in front of him.

Mostly unruffled, Jon retorted, "That's because the woman who usually mans the place had a baby. I'm covering her until she can get back, because I owe her a favor."

"Oh, how noble," the Master snarked.

"Hardly, but enough about me. What do you do for a living, accounting?"

"No, government, I can't tell you much more than that, because it's classified."

"So, you work for the MI5 or something?"

The Master inclined his head, "Oh, much higher and better than that, I assure you." And he always would be. A time lord would always be better than some high-ranking-government-official human.

"Here are your suits, Jane," Jon ground out, looking more and more irate by the second. Something in the time lord's comment had ticked him off.

"Thank you, Jon. I'll visit some other time, just you and me, eh?" Jane put a hand on the man's cheek with a small and sad-looking smile. A smile which visibly brightened when Jon stopped glowering at the Master long enough to kiss her cheek.

"Sure, just you and me, Jane," Jon's eyes briefly flickered in the direction of the Master to give a smoldering stare, which clearly said, 'back off, mate.'

The Master rolled his eyes, scoffing, as if to say, 'Is that all? Tell me how you really feel Jon.' Fretting, Jane hurriedly nudged him out of the shop and back to the motorcycle. Jon watched them the whole time as the got on the bike and rode off. 'How pathetic, the ape actually believes that he could ever classify himself as a threat or something. What a laugh...'

* * *

Leicester was just as unimpressive as Oakham, in the Master's opinion, there was nothing special about it, except for the fact that it contained the shop where he would be obtaining his much needed materials. The shop they were looking for was inside of a mall, a classic, twenty-first century, Earth mall. It was crowded now and rather stuffy, much unlike the last mall when it was so early in the morning that it was like walking into a dead zone.

Here, there were elderly people who walked like they had all the time in the world, couples with shrieking children, teenage adolescents posturing and trying to either gain status or gain temporary mates, young females in their barely-contained, swarming masses of hormones, the authorities attempting to maintain relative peace in the enclosed space, everything that you would expect in a large place filled with people. Eventually, they made it to the destined shop and the cashier who worked there seemed to know Jane quite well, going by his familiar greeting.

"Hey there, J, going casual today?" He asked, his voice a deep baritone, friendly dark brown eyes smiling from behind large frames as he adjusted his spectacles.

"Yeah, I just picked up my suits at the dry-cleaners earlier. Today, Harry's going to be helping me with a big project. We might be here a while, I think."

"That's nice, J, it's good to have a friend. Sweet to meet you, Harry."

"It's Harold," the Master corrected distantly as he prowled through the aisles, looking for what he needed. Many of the objects were inadequate, others useless, and more still weren't even worth any consideration. However, his sharp eyes still managed to find the metaphorical diamonds through all of the rough. A portable radio, yards of wire, a box filled with random bits and pieces of metal that he happened to find sitting off to the side, a cell-phone, a game station, and a DS, among other things. The Master let out a frustrated groan, he _still_ didn't have all the things he needed.

"What's the matter, Master?"

"Do you think," the Master started in a tone that one would use when speaking to a particularly slow child, "that if I explained the components of my, frankly, _magnificent_ plans for my technology, that you would even _begin_ to understand?"

"Well,_ no_, but I'm _sure_ that I could keep up or think of something that even _you_ haven't thought of yet."

"_Right_," the Master said doubtfully, before deciding to accept her challenge. "Okay, fine, I need a circuit, a conductor of some sort that can transmit electromagnetic signals throughout the circuit board, is pliable, and-" Jane abruptly walked away from the time lord while he was still in mid-sentence, blinking, the time lord smirk and turned back around. Believing that his point was proven, he counted this as a 'win' and continued on with his searching for suitable materials.

However this self-assurance was short lived.

"Here, this primitive form of a coiled, transcoding, electro-cord should suffice." The blonde jumped, both in surprise to Jane's unnoticed return and the impossible words that just recently tumbled right out of her mouth. Sure enough, the coaxial cable in her hands would work brilliantly for his intended purposes on which use it. He hesitantly took it from her hands as her studied her intently, as if trying to see past the flesh of the human before him into the mind, into the person, hiding within her. A normal human would have no knowledge of those types of cords until the twenty-eighth century at the earliest.

Suspicious, he reluctantly praised her, "Yeah, that'll do, nice find, _Ape_."

"Thanks, need anymore 'nice finds,' _Martian_?" Jane teased, before sobering, "Seriously, I could help. Just what are you trying to make again?"

Cautiously, the Master listed off the desired products of his efforts from savaging parts, "I need parts for a laser screwdriver, a distress beacon set to transmit to a TARDIS, as well as a tracker set to only find other time lords."

"Oh, is that all? That'll be easy for the most part, except for a few things, like a zeonian power cell, we can find most of the necessary parts here to make a rough equivalent..." Jane wandered off, taking her _impossible_ monologue of _impossible_ things with her _impossible_ knowledge from her _impossible_ mind.

Minutes later and the Master found himself trailing along after the brunette woman as she carried a large, red, plastic basket filled with their find up to the front, still talking excitedly, her eyes misted over, as if her mind was on auto-pilot while her consciousness went on a vacation. The clerk shook his head in amusement before turning to see the time lord's bewildered confusion, "Don't worry about it, mate. She _always_ gets like this with technology. There's no snapping her out of it either, it's like she's in a trance, like she's not completely there. J is a good kid, though, sweet, if a little out there."

"_Every_ time?" The Master repeated for confirmation.

"Yeah, once she was talking about an internal clock dynamo or something like that, it was supposed to temporary reverse the effect of a circuit of some sort, when she abruptly snapped out of it and got confused. It was as if she forgot how she got here and what point of the stuff in her arms were for; she brought them anyway, but her didn't really seem like she knew why she was buying them, just that she absolutely _had_ to."

"Interesting," the brown-eyed man mumbled.

"That will be £683.88, please."

"Oh," Jane said, as if she was waking from a day dream, completely disorientated. "Oh, that was quick, I must've dosed off there, got everything you need?"

"...Most of it, yeah. I just need to make a quick...visit of sorts to Torchwood so I can get them. We can do that later though. I need to fix up, make, and confirm some things first."

"That sounds brilliant," Jane said airily as she smiled dazedly, oblivious to the Master's scrutiny as she paid for their purchases. He was suspicious and had a theory. He was sure, so sure, that said theory of his was a correct one and would prove to be a fact. He was going to test that theory out and the time lord had the perfect way to go about it.

Tonight, they were going to break into Torchwood.

* * *

**_To Be Continued..._**

* * *

**_Explanations:_**

* In the way of underwear, I picture that Master as more of a briefs type of guy and the Original!Doctor as more of a boxer-wearer.

* Jon Redfern is _not _the male version of Joan Redfern, but one of her decedents. The relationship and interaction between Jane and Jon with be much the same as with John and Joan, though. We'll be seeing more of Jon quite soon.

* Ah, MI5. I always get confused on whether or not it's called MI5 or M15. I think it's MI5, but I always, _always _read it as M15. I have a hard time speaking, saying some words correctly, and putting the thoughts in my head into spoken words. It's very awkward for my to say MI5, it comes out weird, like "my-5," or really forced and halting, like "M.I.5."

* I'm so proud of my self with that description of the mall. It was partially inspired by book five in the _'Animorphs'_ series. Well, now that I think of it, the whole Leicester mall scene was inspire by a few pages in that book (17-20). Great series.

* £683.88 is equal to $1,094.86.

* Yeah, that's right,_ Torchwood_. You won't be meeting Jack yet though, sorry. If at all, he is only going to be mentioned in passing. Well, actually, they are going to be technically breaking into Torchwood twice, but at two different Torchwood buildings, does that make any sense?

* The color that a hydrangea bush's flowers have really do depend on the acidity of the soil. Ideal pH levels are around 5.0 and 6.2. Blue is closer to 5.0 and pink is closer to 6.2.

* "Sex Change Regeneration" is forbidden and is considered to be a worse crime then stealing a TARDIS and interfering in other time zones. The standard punishment is for the Time Lord to be locked inside their TARDIS forever. Their only escape is to activate the de-materialization switch with will remove them from History turning them into a never-person. The Master thinking that the would never break any of the laws of time is absurd, because he also broke law 6:It is forbidden to allow non-Time Lords into a TARDIS.

More information can be found on the site 'RASSILON, OMEGA, and that OTHER Guy.'

_**Advertisements:**_

**TITLE: **Into the Fire

**AUTHOR: **EsaEnai

**ID: **8139346

**SUMMARY: **Regeneration is best faced in a stable environment. An impossible world filled with inscrutable elves, ornery princes and powerful magic was not the Tenth's Doctor's top choice, but he's nothing if not adaptable. LotR/Doctor Who Xover. 10/Rose

**OPINION: **A very good read, but it can get pretty deep and will make you ponder some deep concepts. One of the few _'Doctor who'_ and _'Lord of the Rings'_ crossovers that has legit reactions and situations. I highly recommend it though, since it's easy to get into and picture very thing that's going on with little to no purple prose, just the good stuff.

_**Thought Process:** _

Hello all, only a few more chapters until the one which you have all-most likely-have been waiting for, but don't get _too _settled in the idea that you _think _you know what might happen. I can assure you that it will not happen that way. If you guess it, well, you won't guess it.

I seriously love plot twists.

A big thank you to those who voted and those who reviewed: BloodyLily16 (sorry about the confusion there) and Misplaced Levity (who I must say, writes a brilliant Shelock fan fiction. I would have advertised it, but I only advertise stories that are in the same category as the story I'm writing. Sorry, but I'm still very flattered that you-a brilliant author-reviewed my story).

As for the votes... Between the votes on the poll and on the reviews, it's a tie. So, next chapter or the one after will have the results., but I need you guys to break the tie, or I will just decide for you!

I've got a tumblr now. The link is in my profile. I must warn you though, it's not very fancy since I'm not tech-savvy on those types of sites. Feel free to ask questions and stuff about the fan fiction and other ones as well.

Happy Friday,

FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress

_Original Date Submitted for chapter 4: Friday, October 4, 2013_

_Original Date Submitted for chapter 5: Friday, September 27, 2013._

_Date Updated for the chapter 4 and 5 combination: Tuesday, October 15, 2013._


	5. Observation

**_All translations, explanations, advertisements, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter._**

**_Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them._**

* * *

_Watcher of the skies watcher of all _  
_ His is a world alone no world is his own, _  
_ He whom life can no longer surprise, _  
_ Raising his eyes beholds a planet unknown_

-Watcher of the Skies by Genesis

* * *

"What's going to happen is this: We will go to the Torchwood One branch in Canary Wharf, since it hasn't seemed to be utterly destroyed yet, and break in-"

"What?! We going to _break in?_ I thought you were just picking some things up, not filching them!" Jane exclaimed, interrupted the Master.

"If you'll let me continue?" The Master grounded out, and Jane quieted down, but still had a doubtful look on her face. "Torchwood One filches technology from other species-aliens if you will-only far more violently than we are going to do. All of the things we're taking from them, don't belong to them in the first place. The technology will be put in much better use under my care rather than theirs, since I actually know what I'm doing with it, the stupid apes. The uses I plan for the tech, surprisingly, have good intentions behind them."

The master paused and blinked in a stunned manner, "...I'd never thought I'd ever say that and be telling the truth... Anyway, I hacked into Torchwood's files and have the layout of the base and anything else that would be needed, which is the ventilation system and the lower floor plans, on the laptop in real time. Whatever they see, I see. I also made sure to find out their security systems and hack into those too. For approximately one hour and forty-nine minutes all the sensors and cameras in only the necessary corridors and vents-fifteen corridors and twenty-six vents-will be on a loop or turned off accordingly. The break in will be happening at around one thirty-nine the morning-the low tide in security for that particular sector.

"I'm much too large for the vents, but you're tiny enough to fit, since these vents are fairly large and not a small as they should be. If a high-security building didn't want to be penetrated in that particular fashion, you'd think that they'd make it so not even a child could fit though. As it is though, they did make them that big and I conveniently have a child on hand, who will wear this headset and follow my directions as precisely as I give them, because she doesn't want to get caught. I will be listing out the needed technology and watch for any difficulties while you retrieve them. Once you get back outside with as much of the tech you can find, we'll see if we need to go break into Torchwood Three. Hopefully we won't need to and everything will be at Torchwood One, but I doubt it."

Jane tried to blink away the awe over the Master's-quite frankly-brilliant plan, but he still saw the way she was looking at him and smirked at her. "Basically," he said, "this is going to be the best night of your life."

"Apparently," Jane said, still sounding a little dumbstruck. "Is there any particular time we need to leave at or anything we need to do before hand?"

"You, you mean, there is no 'we,' I've being ready to do this ages ago. You need to get into something that's easy to run in, not very colorful or bright or eye-catching in any way, something to keep you hair out of the way or just chop it off, and finally no jewelry or anything clunky or dangling," the Master listed off absent-mindedly, picking at the loose fibers on his new black hoodie. "We're leaving at ten, since it's going to take close to two hours to get to Canary Wharf and it's highly likely that you'll get lost at least twice on the way there."

"Hey! I'm not _that_ bad, plus, there is such a thing as Google maps, you know," Jane protested as she made her way up the stairs to change.

"I know," the Master retorted, "you're worse." The woman whipped around to give him the evil eye and shook her hand in menacing way that wasn't as threatening as it was playful. The time lord rolled his eyes, but didn't take back his comment. He was more worried about her losing her way while in the vents...which was why he put a tracking device in the headset and he had another tracer to clip on her person as soon as she came back down the stairs.

The whole point of this was a test, he was testing Jane to see how far her knowledge extended and just how much of it was the Doctor's. There were so many things he could ask her, so many things he wanted to ask the Doctor, but there was always that chance that she wasn't the Doctor, and those things he wanted to ask his oldest friend were sensitive.

Not something that the Master wanted to share with the general public.

The whole plan was a mad idea that he came up with in the few hours that the time lord had to himself, building his tracking device and distress beacon. Yes, a _distress _beacon. Not that the Master was actually _in _distress, it was just that there was hardly anything in the universe that caught the Doctor's attention faster than a cry for help aimed directly at him and his TARDIS.

But once he caught the Doctor's attention or Jane turned out to _be_ the Doctor, what would the Master do then?

He didn't know and that was what scared him the most.

* * *

"You know what?" Jane's asked, her voice coming clearly through the headset, as if she was right beside him.

The Master sighed in an exasperated manner, "What is it now, Jane? And make it quick, because even though Torchwood One is being supervised by a handful of blundering apes, they still have a sense of hearing and the air ducts echo quite spectacularly."

"In the movies, air ducts are the escape route of choice for heroes trapped in industrial buildings or villains trying to enter the buildings through the ducts, like the Grinch on Christmas Eve night as he sneaks down the chimneys. They're clean and roomy and sound proof, and will take you anywhere you want to go. I don't know where Hollywood buys their ventilation shafts, but they don't use the same supplier as Torchwood.

"It's also pretty dusty, if someone had asthma, chances are they'd probably die up here and Torchwood would be smelling it for weeks because the air ducts aren't a secret escape hatch, they're how this place ventilates the facility. Ha, I'd love to be back in 1958. No one's seen Die Hard, or Alien, or Die Hard 2, or Aliens, or Die Hard 3, I bet those movies are the very reason why these shafts are so small, and the sad part is, these duct are larger than normal, too-"

"I get it, Jane. Now be quiet, there's a person approaching your location and is almost within earshot... Try to breathe more quietly or, better yet, hold your breath for a moment or two." The Master could hear Jane growl under her breath mutinously, but she continued to hold her tongue. "Alright, there's another intersection coming up, make sure you turn left, and yes, it's your left, not mine. Good...good... go another few meters and take another left."

The time lord studiously watched the laptop screen which was split into two sections, Jane's progress in the vents and the cameras' view of the hallways below the vents. They had been at this for close to forty-three minutes. Surprisingly, Jane only got lost in the vents once, and that was only because Jane didn't know whether or not the Master was referring to her right or his. The master was quite sure that the only reason why the woman didn't get lost and fall down a shaft was because of his prowess in hacking and skill at back-seat driving.

"Stop! Don't move a muscle, the guard who's about two meters ahead of you froze, like he heard something, like he heard _you_. Be more careful in your shuffling around. I'd rather that you didn't get caught only twelve and a half meters-give or take-from your destination." Jane huffed in response to the Master's rebuke, but she still complied with his order and stayed put until she got the all-clear.

"Okay, he's moved on and should be out of earshot by now. Get moving-_Silently!_ Proceed _silently!-_take two rights and a left. Once you see some grilling, carefully set the screwdriver to setting I had you memorize. Careful, if you do it wrong, you _will_ die and then_ 'Torchwood will be smelling it for weeks.'"-_The Master exclaimed in a high falsetto before changing back to his normal tone of voice-"You don't want that now do you?" He taunted her relentlessly, throwing Jane's words back at her, trying to hide the small amount of worry that she actually might just kill herself.

Jane snorted, "Careful, Master, it almost sounds like you legitimately care or something. Yes, I remember the setting, and yes, I'll catch the grill before it falls off from the lack of any screws holding it up. I won't be able to catch the screws though..." The sound of his newly-yet incomplete, only seventy-six settings!-laser screwdriver came in through his end of the headset, and the blonde was pleased to note that the whirl was at the correct frequency and, therefore, the correct setting.

From the real camera footage that he just hijacked, the Master watched as the grilling fell after Jane caught it, dropped it, caught it again, only to drop it a second time. She didn't do a last minute save, but thankfully the grilling landed on the cardboard boxes that Jane was going to use to get down from her perch in the vents. Jane let out a curse, "Omega's orifice... Sorry, Master, I dropped the grilling, there was no proper place to find a hand hold."

The Master didn't comment, too surprised at the explicit choice in words that Jane used to express her frustration. He watch as she cautiously climbed down from the vent, stretching down carefully so she wouldn't upset the pile of boxes by suddenly putting all of her weight on them all at once. Balancing on the top-most box she sneakily looked around, as if expecting some police to jump her out of the blue, but no, she was alone. "Alright, so what things do I need to get? ...Master? You there?" Jane started to get nervous when the time lord didn't immediate respond and her voice went up an octave, "Master?!"

"Alright, alright, calm down, don't get your knickers in a twist. I need you to look for a reticular vector gauge."

"Is it the thing with the glass bit?"

"Yeah," he kept his voice neutral, as he watched Jane hop down from her perch and make her way over to the shelves upon shelves of alien technology, as if she knew exactly what she was looking for. If she was a normal human, she would know nothing about the device the master just mentioned. Jane found her prize with little to no trouble. The Master furiously listed off more devices:

_"Look for a space-time telegraph!"_

_"A hypercube!"_

_"Get me a Winklegruber neural parameter predictor!"_

And so on and so on. Each and every time Jane was successfully able to retrieve the device he requested, even the hypercube. It just wasn't possible for anyone who wasn't a time lord or a companion to know what it was. "Anything else, Master? I hope not. Much more and I would be able to bring everything back," Jane asked conversationally as she stuffed the last device into her small backpack that she wore on her front rather than her back. If anything else, it was more of a frontpack, since she was crawling through small vents.

"No, I don't believe I need anymore..." The Master trailed off.

What?

Anymore _what? _

Anymore devices?

...Or anymore proof?

"Just get back here, you're running out of time. If you don't hurry up... Well, you'll want to hurry." Jane only had around thirty-eight minutes, less time than before to navigate the vents and she was weighed down by the technology. They would be cutting it close. Jane cheerfully climbed up the pile of boxes without too much trouble on her part and jumped to reach the vent opening.

She managed to get a grip and pull herself inside the cavernous air ducts, making her way back to the relative safety of the Master's side. It was only relative, because there was always the off-chance that she would annoy the time lord too much and would either get disintegrated into a pile of ash or tortured mercilessly.

He absent-mindedly gave Jane the directions and orders to do this or that as he contemplated on his next move. He would have to go about this delicately, start out small and subtle. He would first ask the woman about her 'past,' poke holes into it, show that something was wrong there, that she was missing something, that her memories just might be fake.

The Master vaguely remembered through the fever-filled haze of the conversation he had with Jane right after he regenerated and during his healing-coma, her mentioning in passing about dreams and a diary of some sort. He would have to obtain a copy of it and read it for himself, just to see if it was memories of a past companion that had to be erased or that of a time lord who used the chameleon arch to hide and forget.

After he ascertained some facts he would then confront Jane about her either being a companion or a time lord named the Doctor. The Master supposed that he could just ask if she had a pocket watch, but she might had forgotten about the watch-if she had one-much like he did as Professor Yana. Asking about it wouldn't provide any use for him. He would just have to-

_Be-beep._

The Master was startled out of his thought by short chirping noise and a flash of red. He eyes were immediately draw to the timer on the upper-right corner of the screen that counted down how much time they had left before the cameras and sensor stopped looping. The numbers now shown red instead of the white that they had been until now. The Master paled when he saw how much time was left and how far Jane still had to go through the vents.

**4:56**

And the time was still running out. She wouldn't make it if she continued at the pace she was going, but if she went any faster, they would hear her and know she was there. What to do, what to do...

If he told Jane, she might panic or do something stupid.

If he didn't tell her, Jane would still end up panicking or doing something stupid when the alarms go off.

The Master deliberated between those two options for close to a minute forty-nine and started to break out into a cold sweat. Running his hand through his hair roughly, it soon became apparent that he couldn't avoid it much longer. Finally, he abruptly stated, "You've got two minutes and thirteen seconds to get out of there, Jane."

"...What?"

"You're got two minutes and seven seconds left before the sensor detect you and the alarms go off."

"What?!"

"You've heard me correctly, Jane. You better start crawling as if your life depended on it, because it does. You've got one minute and fifty-eight seconds."

"_What?!_" Jane whisper-shouted into the microphone.

"One minute and fifty-_six_ seconds," the Master corrected himself.

"You are a complete and total _tosser_!" Jane yelped as she started to crawl like a mad woman through the tunnels, "You are unbelievable! Next time, _I_ will be the one steering and _you _will be the buggering horse."

"Careful now, I just might get offended," the Master snorted. "Turn right. One minute forty-five seconds."

"Ack!" Jane came to halt, hurriedly scrambled backwards, and then quickly turned down the correct vent. If she kept crawling at this trying to be both fast and sneaky, she would make it with only ten seconds vulnerability. It wasn't good enough, even ten seconds was too much time.

"At the rate you're going, you'll almost make it. Almost being the key word. You need to go faster. One minute twenty-four seconds."

"If I go any faster, they will hear me for sure!" The woman scolded the time lord in a harsh whisper.

"It doesn't matter. One minute seventeen seconds," the Master snapped.

The brown-eyed female stumbled in surprise, making a loud thump to which they both grimaced at. Suddenly a series of loud thumps and bangs could be heard through the headset, Jane was doing exactly as the Master asked. "Are you...are you _worried_, Master? This is the second time you sounded like you were and there no such thing as coincidences, I always say, just people with time-machines."

"No," the Master snarled a bit too quickly, "Confound it all, Doctor, if you have enough time to yap, you obviously aren't crawling fast enough! Move your arse, you twit!"

"I'm not a Doctor anymore, Master," Jane laughed, "I'm more of a house's nanny now, but I'll take that compliment any time."

"It wasn't a compliment, it was an order to get moving! You only have forty seconds to get the hell out of there!"

"Sweet mother of Chaos!" Jane cried out with a controlled sort of panic, trying to crawl faster. The Master anxiously watched the blimp that marked Jane's location in the labyrinthine vents on the laptop. He barked out directions of 'turn left' or 'turn right' when necessary, completely tense on the motorcycle. Jane, to her credit, was panicked and scared, but managed to transfer that energy into the effort it to took to crawl and didn't do anything stupid or counter-productive.

However, even with both of their efforts, she still didn't make it in time. Sirens went off, the bright florescent lighting turned red, and a voice started to shout commands over the intercom system in the building. None of the commotion was apparent outside of the building, it seemed peaceful and undisturbed. "Jane!" The Master bellowed into the headset. "Get out of there! Just keep going, you only have a few more meters left!"

He slammed the laptop shut and stuffed it into the saddle bags, not daring to waste time to see what happened. The Master never driven a motorcycle before, but that little fact was very trivial at the moment. He simply copied the actions he witnessed Jane doing all day long and kick-started the engine. Ripping the headset off of his head, his shoved it into the saddle bags as well and stuffed the black helmet onto his head, anxiously waiting for his brown-haired accomplice to re-emerge.

It was with a strong sense of relief that he spotted Jane bolting from around the side of the building at a full-sprint. Not even looking both ways, she dashed across the street and hopped behind the Master, quickly shoving her own helmet on top of her head. Gunning the engine, the Master and Jane raced away with a roar of the blue motorcycle, leaving Torchwood One far behind them. Thankfully the streets were deserted at this time of night, because the Master was absolute rubbish at driving motorcycles. The moment he pulled over into an abandoned parking lot, Jane leapt off the bike and stumbled away a few paces. The duo ripped the helmets off their heads and just breathed.

"My heart is pounding," Jane finally said, sounding amazed.

"That's how you know you're having a good time," the Master explained breathily, with slight bemusement.

He watched in disbelief as she felt her pulse and said, still sounding astonished, "My pulse is dangerously high. I don't even remember the last time I got excited about something like that. The adrenaline in the throat and the lungs expanding..." Jane continued to babble on and on. And the Master doubted for a brief moment that she really was the parallel-Doctor. These doubts soon fled when she let out a cry of, "Let's do it again!"

"No, I'm never driving that _thing_ again."

"No," Jane agreed, "You're not. You're a rubbish driver, you know that?"

"I'll have you know, that I am a great driver as long as it is not that blue monstrosity. You can driver it for all I can as I long as I only ride and nothing else," the Master sniffed in disdain, smirking slightly.

"Whatever," she laughed. "So where to next, old man?"

"Torchwood."

"No, seriously, where to?"

"Torchwood."

"...Seriously?"

"Don't make me repeat myself, Jane."

"B-but I thought that we were done there?" She asked, alarmed.

"We're done with Torchwood One, but not with torchwood in general," The Master finally elaborated for his confused chauffeur. "I'll handle this one. The thing about this Torchwood is that this is the one Handsome Jack runs and they have a bloody good security system. We can't afford to risk you having another panic-attack, Jane."

"Hey!" She cried in protest, but the Master only smirked in response and didn't take back his comment. "I did pretty good for a first timer."

"Yeah," the time lord allowed, but didn't comment further. He merely stuffed his helmet back on shuffled back on the motorcycle to make room for Jane it sit up in front of him.

Jane smiled as she put on her on helmet and hopped on, kick-starting the engine. 'The master was right,' she decided, 'This is the best night of my life.'

* * *

**_To Be Continued..._**

* * *

**_Explanations:_**

* It's actually a lot harder than you would expect to go climbing into the ventilation systems at school. I tried by standing on top of the toilet, but I was too short to reach the entrance of it which happened to be opened on that particular day. I also happen to be blessed with many curves-which give me plenty of back problems in the morning-and would not have fit even if I had been able to climb up there. It's also illegal to do it anyway.

* I've decided that this is taking place during same year that Rose was missing when she was off with the Doctor, so Canary Wharf hasn't been totally annihilated yet.

* DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?! I had the Doctor quoting his-or in this case _her-_self... I still don't have a life.

* 'Omega's orifice' and 'Sweet mother of Chaos' are actually legitimate profanities for time lords. You can find out more time lord terminology on the site 'Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy.'

* All technology mentioned in this chapter is real tech for _'Doctor Who'_ cannon. You can find out more on the TARDIS wiki.

**_Advertisements:_**

**TITLE: **Three Doctors, Three Bicycles

**AUTHOR: **TheEccentricSpeaker

**ID: **6199377

**SUMMARY: **"Why is it every time I meet one of you guys my bike ends up paying the price?" Taylor Foster meets the 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctor, each time something happening to her bicycle.

**OPINION: **When I read this, I wanted a sequel where Taylor went traveling with him, that I almost, _almost_ wrote a Fan Fiction of Fan Fiction. Then I realized that I wouldn't be able to give it the attention it deserved, so I somehow managed to talk myself out of that idea.

**_Thought Process:_**

Well, I honestly have nothing to say for myself other than the obvious: I'm late.

I'm been buried in homework and have been staying up to eleven-thirty at night trying to finish it. By the time I'm done getting ready for bed, it's close to midnight. I have to get up at six in the morning. As a seventeen-year-old lady, I need on average nine and a half hours of sleep. I'm only getting five to six, because I have trouble sleeping at night and keep waking up at all hours of the night. Plus Friday was the worst day I've had in a long while-my backpack has died twice over on the same day.

Ironically, Saturday was one of the best days of my life, as I have been privileged enough to be able to go to the Xcel energy center to the Rediscover convention.

So, yeah, sorry about that.

The reviewers for last chapter are such dears. Thank you: BloodLily16, TheScanalInBelgravia, Dragonfire2lm, the-kaliens-are-invading, and Misplaced Levity.

Good to hear from you again: BloodLily16, TheScanalInBelgravia, and Misplaced Levity.

And welcome: Dragonfire2lm and the-kaliens-are-invading.

Don't worry BloodLily16, everything will make sense to you eventually. And the-kaliens-are-invading, phantasmagorical just happens to be my one of favorite obscure words! Just for that, I will do a request for you, if you want.

As for the rest of you, I counted up the votes...and it turns out we still have a tie, six votes each. We have only one more chapter to go before I introduce the parallel-Martha. I'm starting lean most towards the main companions being gender-bent (except for Donna, I've got plans for her).

I'm still open to your opinions though, so keep voting.

Happy Monday,

FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress

P.S. I might not be able to update this Friday, but I try my hardest.


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